Simpler Bible

Welcome to Simpler Bible, your daily path to biblical understanding.

What's in Store: Daily podcasts, YouTube videos, and blog posts – everything you need to make your Bible study a breeze, no matter where you are on your faith journey.

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Here’s an excerpt from the blog post.

If we aren't careful, we will assume that chapter two is a different conversation than what is happening in chapter one, but as I will show you in today's video, along with tomorrow's, we can see that these first four chapters are one singular thought that Paul is unpacking.

The Corinthians are arguing over who the better teacher is: Paul, Apollos, or Peter. Paul points out that the men who have proclaimed the gospel in or to Corinth are not where the attention or affection should rest. They are, in fact, just "foolish" so that "No human being might boast in man." But, "Let the one who boasts boast in the Lord." Paul did not come to the Corinthians with lofty or impressive speech because he wanted their faith to rest not on his eloquence or charisma but on the power of God. That is why he "Decided to know nothing among them except Jesus Christ and him crucified."

For more visit http://simplerbible.com/episodes

Welcome to Simpler Bible, your daily path to biblical understanding.

What's in Store: Daily podcasts, YouTube videos, and blog posts – everything you need to make your Bible study a breeze, no matter where you are on your faith journey.

Connect with Us:

Don't Miss Out: Hit subscribe for a daily dose of Bible wisdom. Let's explore the Scriptures together, connect the dots, and uncover the major themes of redemption.

Join us in making Bible study Simpler!

Here’s an excerpt from the blog post.

One, we ought "Not to please ourselves. Let each of us please his neighbor for his good, to build him up." We would do well, as believers, to remember that we ought to serve one another and build one another up in Christ Jesus. Too often, we whine and complain that we aren't being built up, that the body of Christ isn't serving us, and we speak wickedly of the body. We need to remind ourselves that it is not our goal to be served but to serve. If we each took this attitude, then there would be no lack in the church.

Second, "Whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope." The "Scripture" here is speaking of the Old Testament. We need to remember that we are not people of the Old Covenant but of the New, but that doesn't mean we don't find encouragement in the reading of the Old Testament. If you have gone this far with us on Simpler Bible, then you know that the OT is filled with things that point to and promise the truth of Jesus.

Third, Phoebe is called a "servant" in most translations of the Bible, but the word is actually "deacon." Okay, let me say that differently. The Greek word that we typically render "deacon" actually means "servant," so it is not wrong to say that Phoebe is a servant. The problem I have is that the editors seem to want to make a distinction between the position of "deacon" in 1 Timothy and Phoebe as a "deacon" in Romans 16. I don't think there is a distinction, and I wish we would either always translate the word as "servant" or always leave it untranslated as "deacon." But that could just be my pet peeve.

For more visit http://simplerbible.com/episodes

Welcome to Simpler Bible, your daily path to biblical understanding.

What's in Store: Daily podcasts, YouTube videos, and blog posts – everything you need to make your Bible study a breeze, no matter where you are on your faith journey.

Connect with Us:

Don't Miss Out: Hit subscribe for a daily dose of Bible wisdom. Let's explore the Scriptures together, connect the dots, and uncover the major themes of redemption.

Join us in making Bible study Simpler!

Here’s an excerpt from the blog post.

Now, let's be careful that we don't pass judgment from one side to the other, for each side believes themselves to be in the right. The reality of the matter is that as long as the thing, either the restriction or the freedom, is done in the name of Christ and for the honor of the Lord, it is okay. So then eating is fine, and abstaining from food is fine. What is not okay is casting judgments and dispersions on one another.

Nothing is unclean on its own merit, "But it is unclean for anyone who thinks it unclean." And, "The one who doubts is condemned if he eats because his eating is not from faith." However, the instruction to mature in faith is found in the first verse of the next chapter, "We who are strong have an obligation to bear with the failings of the weak, and not to please ourselves."

For more visit http://simplerbible.com/episodes

Welcome to Simpler Bible, your daily path to biblical understanding.

What's in Store: Daily podcasts, YouTube videos, and blog posts – everything you need to make your Bible study a breeze, no matter where you are on your faith journey.

Connect with Us:

Don't Miss Out: Hit subscribe for a daily dose of Bible wisdom. Let's explore the Scriptures together, connect the dots, and uncover the major themes of redemption.

Join us in making Bible study Simpler!

Here’s an excerpt from the blog post.

Many Jews in Paul's day were insistent that the Gentiles who put their faith in Jesus also adhere to Jewish laws and practices. Of course, we know from the counsel in Jerusalem, recorded for us in Acts 15, that the Gentile believers were not held to the standard of the law. And we shall soon see, in Galatians, that Paul had powerful negative feelings toward those who taught the law as a means to holiness.

To the Jews who were concerned about upholding the Jewish law, both Jesus and Paul reminded them that " the one who loves another has fulfilled the law." And "Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfillment of the law."

We need to remember that, for most of us reading this, we are not Jews, and even if we were, neither the Jew nor the Gentile in faith is held to the standard of the Mosaic law. I would be remiss if I did not again point you to 2 Corinthians 3:6-11.

For more visit http://simplerbible.com/episodes

Welcome to Simpler Bible, your daily path to biblical understanding.

What's in Store: Daily podcasts, YouTube videos, and blog posts – everything you need to make your Bible study a breeze, no matter where you are on your faith journey.

Connect with Us:

Don't Miss Out: Hit subscribe for a daily dose of Bible wisdom. Let's explore the Scriptures together, connect the dots, and uncover the major themes of redemption.

Join us in making Bible study Simpler!

For more visit http://simplerbible.com/episodes

Welcome to Simpler Bible, your daily path to biblical understanding.

What's in Store: Daily podcasts, YouTube videos, and blog posts – everything you need to make your Bible study a breeze, no matter where you are on your faith journey.

Connect with Us:

Don't Miss Out: Hit subscribe for a daily dose of Bible wisdom. Let's explore the Scriptures together, connect the dots, and uncover the major themes of redemption.

Join us in making Bible study Simpler!

Here’s an excerpt from the blog post.

All that having been spoken quite well by Paul, we now land at a place where the application of theology comes into play. "In view of God's mercy (which Paul has just mentioned four times in the eleventh chapter), present your bodies as living sacrifices to God." In other words, when you consider the state of your sinful self, the righteousness of God, saving faith, being made new in Christ, and the mercy lavished on you, live this way.

"By the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think." What a great reminder to the Jews not to be puffed up because to them came the savior and the promises and the prophets. What a great reminder to the Gentiles not to be puffed up because they, over the Jews, have come, in droves, to salvation. After all, "We, though many, are one body in Christ."

For more visit http://simplerbible.com/episodes

Welcome to Simpler Bible, your daily path to biblical understanding.

What's in Store: Daily podcasts, YouTube videos, and blog posts – everything you need to make your Bible study a breeze, no matter where you are on your faith journey.

Connect with Us:

Don't Miss Out: Hit subscribe for a daily dose of Bible wisdom. Let's explore the Scriptures together, connect the dots, and uncover the major themes of redemption.

Join us in making Bible study Simpler!

Here’s an excerpt from the blog post.

"Did they [the Jews] stumble so they might fall [be destroyed]?" Of course not. It was so that the Gentiles could come to faith. God, in his benevolent mercy, hardened the Jews so they would crucify their Messiah so that the world could be saved through him. That mercy to the Gentiles does not give us room to boast ourselves over the Jews, for the "Gifts and calling of God [on the Jews] is irrevocable." God will, in his mercy, bring them to Jesus's truth. God has "Consigned all [Jews and Gentiles] to disobedience, that he may have mercy on all [Jews and Gentiles]." There is that word "all" again. Please don't lose sight of what it meant in the opening pages of Romans. It is not meant to say every single individual will be saved, but that salvation isn't for the Jew alone but also for the Gentile. Keep in mind that the language of this book is about nations of people and not individual members of those nations, though you and I are certainly individual members of one of those two groups, either Jews or Gentiles.

For more visit http://simplerbible.com/episodes

Welcome to Simpler Bible, your daily path to biblical understanding.

What's in Store: Daily podcasts, YouTube videos, and blog posts – everything you need to make your Bible study a breeze, no matter where you are on your faith journey.

Connect with Us:

Don't Miss Out: Hit subscribe for a daily dose of Bible wisdom. Let's explore the Scriptures together, connect the dots, and uncover the major themes of redemption.

Join us in making Bible study Simpler!

Here’s an excerpt from the blog post.

Again, Paul says that the Jews were "Ignorant of the righteousness of God, and seeking to establish their own, they did not submit to God's righteousness." And "For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes." If I didn't say it in the video, I will now. "Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes." To the people who want to kick back against that and say, "But we still have to do the Ten Commandments, don't we;" I want to remind you that our righteousness is initially supplied by faith in the work of God through Christ and is maintained by that same faith. It is not the commandment, "You shall have no other gods before me," that guards me from idolatry, but the deep love I have for my savior. I have not kept myself from adultery because the commandment says, "Do not commit adultery," but I have been kept from adultery by the Spirit at work in me who has built such a deep love in my heart for my God and King that adultery is not even a possibility. We've made the mistake, like the Jews, of believing that the law/rules safeguard people from sin, but that was never the case. (go check out the last few verses of Colossians 2. The law can never stop the desires of the flesh)

Instead of heaping up more laws, good though they may be, let us instead submit to the Spirit at work within us so that our lives will embody the righteousness Christ has imparted to us. We will get into this more in Galatians and Colossians.

For more visit http://simplerbible.com/episodes

Welcome to Simpler Bible, your daily path to biblical understanding.

What's in Store: Daily podcasts, YouTube videos, and blog posts – everything you need to make your Bible study a breeze, no matter where you are on your faith journey.

Connect with Us:

Don't Miss Out: Hit subscribe for a daily dose of Bible wisdom. Let's explore the Scriptures together, connect the dots, and uncover the major themes of redemption.

Join us in making Bible study Simpler!

Here’s an excerpt from the blog post.

In chapter nine, Paul clearly states that "it is not the children of the flesh who are the children of God, but the children of the promise are counted as his offspring." Paul is referring here to the difference between Ishmael and Isaac. though both were sons of Abraham, only Isaac received the inheritance. Only through Isaac was Abraham's offspring counted. Ishmael came through the "work" and the "flesh" of Abraham, but Isaac come through faith in the promise of God.

"Has the potter no right over the clay to make out of the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for dishonorable use?" From one people, God made some who would come to know him and others who would reject him; from both the Jews and the Gentiles. This chapter isn't about election and predestination as much as some people might want to believe but is more about God showing, yet again, that righteousness wasn't a birthright given to the Jews who had descended from Abraham, but rather righteousness was always by faith working through the promises of God. "Though the number of the sons of Israel be as the sand of the sea, only a remnant of them will be saved." The Jews of the day believed their righteousness was intact because they were "the people of God." Paul uses, in this chapter, the examples of Jacob and Esau, along with Moses and Pharaoh, to show that God's purpose stands, not man's purpose. In this case, God's purpose is that righteousness would come by faith rather than works of the law.

Please don't read Romans 9 in isolation. Ask yourself how this fits in with the first eight chapters. Remember, there is a narrative of faith at play. Set your eyes on the bigger truth sewn throughout the book of Romans. Don't get tunnel vision. Plus, the next two chapters flow directly from what Paul teaches in this chapter.

For more visit http://simplerbible.com/episodes

Welcome to Simpler Bible, your daily path to biblical understanding.

What's in Store: Daily podcasts, YouTube videos, and blog posts – everything you need to make your Bible study a breeze, no matter where you are on your faith journey.

Connect with Us:

Don't Miss Out: Hit subscribe for a daily dose of Bible wisdom. Let's explore the Scriptures together, connect the dots, and uncover the major themes of redemption.

Join us in making Bible study Simpler!

Here’s an excerpt from the blog post.

Note that "To set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace." We often teach and instruct believers not to live according to the flesh but to the Spirit. The argument is often that the flesh and Spirit are both at war with us in our hearts, an idea commonly brought over from Galatians but out of context. But please pay attention to verse nine, "You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you." In other words, you, who the Spirit of God has sealed, can not also be people of the flesh. People of the flesh are who WE WERE prior to faith in Jesus, but now we are people of the Spirit.

Now that we have been set free from sin, law, and flesh, we ought to walk in a manner consistent with the people we've been made to be: people of God, Christ, and the Spirit. The Spirit within us confirms to our hearts that we belong to God.

Just as an exercise, compare how many times Law is mentioned in chapter seven compared to Spirit. Next, read chapter eight and see how much attention is given to the Spirit over the Law. See if Paul might not be making a point about the futility of the Law and the power of the Spirit.

Again, when we read chapter six, we see what the cross of Christ has accomplished. In chapter seven, we see how weak the law was to produce righteousness. In chapter eight, we are regaled by the beauty of the work of the Spirit. Take the text of Romans as one entire thought, or at least take chapters 6-8 as one coherent thought.

For more visit http://simplerbible.com/episodes